Lead or Get Left Behind: How CIOs are Driving Digital Transformation

Consumer behavior has made a dramatic shift in the past decade, and within the IT industry, adapting to this shift has become a vital component to maintaining relevancy. Consumers have become more demanding and impatient than ever before; constantly seeking the instant gratification that can only be satisfied through digital conveniences. It’s no longer acceptable to respond to a customer inquiry within 72 hours – it has to be within hours, even minutes. Product specifications can’t be gathered through an inconvenient phone call – it has to be readily available at the click of a button. And pricing information certainly can’t require giving up personal information – it needs be provided transparently, without strings attached.

All of the aforementioned conveniences have played a role in our digital transformation, but its effects cannot be attributed solely to external influences, like customers, but from internal business influences such as an organization’s marketing, sales, and operations departments as well.

CIOs Drive Digital Transformation

As a CIO, you are responsible for a multitude of aspects within your organization; among them is the need to effectively support your organization’s core business functions through the implementation and management of applications. However, with that comes the responsibility of doing so in a way that meets the needs of your internal departments, all while staying within budgets constraints and optimizing internal IT resources; which is why much of this digital transformation is driven by CIOs.

Applications can range in all sizes and levels of sophistication, but all require IT resources to effectively support them. As business demands continue to rise, so too does the amount of applications that are required to run a successful business and effectively support its assets. However, through this change, modern enterprises, and CIOs specifically, have been forced to achieve greater levels of flexibility and agility in order to accommodate this surge in business demands and the subsequent surge in applications.

IT Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) Outsourcing

One way to address the effects of digital transformation, and the way that many modern IT organizations have chosen to address digital transformation, is through IT I&O outsourcing. Leveraging outsourced IT I&O solutions can deliver significant operational efficiencies and organizational optimizations due to its ability to relieve enterprises of its cumbersome processes. Rather than inundating internal resources every time a new application is added to your infrastructure, you can reallocate those tasks and responsibilities to an external resource that specializes in the operations management of that application; ultimately providing greater levels of productivity, but without the burden of employing those resources in-house. In addition to helping to create operational efficiencies within your organization, IT outsourcing can provide significant infrastructure cost reductions in comparison to maintaining those applications, and the corresponding resources, in-house.

Employing an IT sourcing advisor is a viable way to aide in the strategic evaluation and selection of various outsourced IT providers. With keen insight into market trends and wealth of knowledge to draw on, IT sourcing advisors can provide the necessary consultation, guidance, and support to ensure that your organization’s digital transformation is both cost-effective and well-aligned with your overall